Getting back on the road and meeting members around Scotland

There has been an abundance of virtual meetings these past two years: for obvious reasons! In my role there have been and will continue to be advantages to attending meetings online, whether these be with members or with politicians or construction industry stakeholders. Virtual meetings are more efficient, with no travel time and no travel costs. However, viewed through the lens of effectiveness, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation.

This why I was pleased to be to attend Cartmore Building supplies’ opening of their hard landscaping display on Friday 27 May in Lochgelly. The cutting of the ribbon was performed by a high profile local: none other than former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Also, there was Alex Rowley MSP who wanted to meet the FMB to discuss his consultation on having minimum energy efficiency standards for all new house building in Scotland.

Passivhaus standards for Scotland?

Now Alex Rowley’s proposed bill would see all new housing built to the internationally recognised Passivhaus standard or a Scottish equivalent in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance. Members who currently build houses in Scotland (for the most part as either single homes or smaller housing developments) are ideally placed to complete the consultation. I am keen for the FMB to submit a response too, so I would welcome feedback from interested members on this.

After chatting with manufacturers and suppliers at the event (which had around 100 people in attendance) I took the opportunity to meet members in Fife. It’s been a long time since I have been on the road, having to pull the car over to check and respond to emails. I have always relished the opportunity to catch up with members on their home turf. In reality, the workloads and pressures members are under does mean that taking time out of your day for a dialogue with me is, well not number one on your list of priorities! My thanks to Ryan Fair and Marc Hendry for taking time out of their schedules to meet me.

Marc and Ryan speak out

I hope that Marc and Ryan don’t mind me sharing aspects of what we talked about. Marc, the boss of Dalgety Joiners Ltd shared some suggestions for FMB Insurance services and yes, the topic of material prices came up. Over in St Andrews, Ryan who runs George Fair Joiners & Contractors voiced his frustration about Fife College and the impact of cancelled college days for Ryan’s apprentices. Ryan was keen to hear from me about our work with the Building Standards Division and efforts to improve the building standards system in Scotland.

See you at the 2022 Scotland Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Both Marc and Ryan have a healthy pipeline of works and were curious to know how other members were faring. We should see both of them at our Scotland AGM and summer reception in Edinburgh on Thursday 23 June. This being the best opportunity to catch up with other members face to face, so book your free place and see you in Edinburgh then!

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

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